The Ring, like you've never seen it before...
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope finds a delicate flower in the Ring Nebula. The outer shell of this planetary nebula looks surprisingly similar to the delicate petals of a camellia blossom.
Comments:
I am a little surprised. Last summer in Tucson I detected emission lines from the cat's eye nebula and eventualy traced their origins to a similar structure around that planetary nebula. It makes sense they should be common but difficult to detect with such a low surface brightness. Wonder what's in there exactly?
I would also like to know which galaxy that is in the background. IC1296? Or something else?
The article says: "The "ring" is a thick cylinder of glowing gas and dust around the doomed star"<br><br>I always envisioned it as a sphere .... what forces cause it to become a cylinder ? Also, is the axis of the cylider directed earthward ? Are there any examples where the axis of the cylinder is not directed at earth ?
